Deodorant. It’s not a ‘sexy’ buy. It’s the thing you grab and stick in your basket alongside milk and cat food. It’s the beauty equivalent of buying cotton wool – a beauty staple but about as instagrammable as a half eaten plate of baked beans or your armpit.

So why a post about pits and stuff to put on them? Antiperspirants , or more specifically the aluminium used in them, has been on the watch list for some brands as a potentially problematic ingredient and ‘natural’ skincare lines have been leading the way in developing aluminium free alternatives. I haven’t looked into the research on this so I offer no comment on the science surrounding these concerns, but I’d rather not have too many ‘unnecessaries’ ingredient wise and traditional deodorants often have a large carbon footprint (all that plastic, all that metal) and I’d like to try alternatives. I’ve experimented with a couple of ‘natural’ aluminium free deodorants before but I’ve always found them a combination of a complete faff (the mineral stick things) and most importantly ineffective on the sweat/perspiration front (I’m more of a sweat lady, I dream of only perspiring and being more lady like). Fundamentally, whilst I like nice smelling pits my primary motivation is that I don’t want sweat patches and these alternatives just couldn’t deliver on the anti-sweat front.

Aurelia’s deodorant though is an unexpected and really effective gem. It comes in a jar, it’s a cream coloured paste which feels like super super fine putty and it smells delicious and refreshing (all minty). You take a small fingertip size for each armpit and rub it in. That’s it. It disappears; it’s not a faff and it doesn’t tickle when you do this. It also doesn’t transfer onto clothing or stain fabric. I’ve been trying this for a week now and it works – not just smell wise (they stay minty fresh) but anti-perspirant wise as well. In fact I find it genuinely the most effective deodorant/anti-perspirant I’ve tried, which is incredible. Admittedly it’s autumn now but it’s been warm here in Blighty and it’s stood up to some crowded commutes.

Downsides? It’s £18.00. I know, it’s pricey, but I think the jar will last about 2 months based on my usage – a smallish finger tip size per pit per day. It also works. If trying an aluminium free deodorant which works is your thing, and you have the cash then it’s well worth giving this gem a go.

I haven’t seen it sold on other websites which sell Aurelia at this time (eg Naturisimo, BeautyExpert).

PS: Why do I use ‘natural’ in quotation marks? Describing something as natural is a marketing term so incredibly vague that it’s practically meaningless. You see it used with abandon across skincare ranges to imply some sort of ethical or environmental superiority for either the product or the company which can be extremely questionable when you scratch below the surface (Jurlique I’m looking at you for a start).